Method of making hub shells and like tubular metal articles



Oct. 17, 1933. 5 H. w. KRANZ ET AL METHOD OF IAKING'HUB SHELLS AND LIKETUBULAR METAL ARTICLES Filed June 16, 1930 FIG. 5

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1 UNITEDIS'TATES k 1,931,163 I II I METHOD OF MAKING SHELLS AND I I LIKETUBULAR'METAL'ARTICLES I I lHarry W. Kran z and.Harry H. Bound Lakevvood,

and Jacob S. Fcnzel, Cleveland, hio,assignors, I I i I a I to TheCleveland Welding Company, Cleveland,

0 hio, a corporation of Ohio Ap lication June 16, 1930. serial No. 61,394 Claims. (31, 9'

. The present invention relates to the manufac-v the "descriptionproceeds. r0 th eaccomplishture of hub shells forwire wheels andsimilar; ment of the foregoing and relatedfends, said intubular articlesof varying diameter, and its privention, the r, consists of the meanshereinafter I mary object is to provide a method whereby such fullydescribed and particularly pointed out in I 6 huh shells whichheretofore have been made of the claims. I CD" a numberoi separatepieces, can be formed by "The annexed drawing and the followingdeproperly shaping and forming a single piece. of I scription set forthin detail one approved method metal, thereby producing a hub shellstructure of carrying out theinvention such disclosed I at a much lowercost than has heretofore been mode, however; constituting but one of thevari- I II If) possible withoutzin any way sacrificing strengthouswaysin which the principle of the invention and-rigidity. I a may beused. I I i More particularly our invention contemplates In said annexeddrawing: I I

a process which involves the circularizing or Fig..1 is an isometricview of a substantially tubuiating of a flat or substantially fiat blankflat blank from which a hub shell is formed by I of a'suitable metalsuch as steel, and then workthe method. comprising our invention;Figs.2; 3, ing and forming the resulting tube in such 2. 4, and-fi'sh'owthe successive steps in'tubulating manner to obtain the proper form ofhub'or circularizing the blank illustrated in' Fig. 1; shell desired. Asabove indicated, hub shells for Fig. 615 a fr men sectional View of the"wire wheels have heretofore been made by rollblankillustrated' in Fig. 5showing in. an en- II 50 mg and forming a tubular blank of suitable'larged scale the first-step in the forinin'goi suchmetalinto a formhaving terminal flanges, one tube into a hubfshell; Figs. 7, ,8; 9-. and10 are flange extending inwardly and the other outfragmentary, sectionalviews of aportion of the wardly. Usually in this form of construction,the element shown inv Fig. fi'illustrating the succes- I outwardlydirected flange was provided with an sive steps in the formation of thehub shell by I I 25 annular shoulder adapted to receive adisc-likethemethod comprising ourinvention-which will so memberwhich, providedwith a central aperture, be explained more in detail; Itwill be notedcoacts with the inwardly directed flange on the that Figs. 6 to 10inclusive are fragmentary opposite terminal of the hub in sustaining theviews of the hub shell showing onlyone-half hub; assembly within suchshell .and providing thereof for the-purpose 0f mplifyin e draw- 33 ameans for securing to the hub the several .ing and bringing together theseveral views. into parts of the wheel hub assembly. This method properposition to more' clearly illustrate the of forming the'hub shell byuniting twosepaseveral steps comprising our invention. rate pieces isunsatisfactory from the standpoint In the" practice of .our invention asubstan- I ofcost of manufacture as well as the strength al y fl andgenerally'lectangulal" b an of i 35 of the resultant hub. i I the'kindshown in Fig. lis circularized to'pro The above outlined method ofmaking hub duce the open ended hub illustrated .in Fig. 2; shells hasbeen employed heretofore due to the the ends 1 of this hub are'the-nheated to a suf- 4 fact that no successful method has ever beenficiently high temperature while being brought devised whereby themetalin a single tubular .togthei' as i lust a e i 3. and forc d into 43blank can be so worked as to form the relativethe upset weld 2 as showninFig. 4.] Fol1owing95 ly large radially extending flange on the.en-;this the flash orburr is removed :and the article larged terminal of thehub without breaking of then presents the appearanceshown in Fig. 5.

splitting such metal during the working thereof. Inthe next operation ofFig. fi the diameter 7 By f the methodcomprising'our invention; a of thetube is enlarged .from -one terminal 3 welded together along I theadjacent. edges reduces in diameter rapidly to the-tubular porthereof,which, when formed and worked accordtion 5 which is of substantially thesame diameinggto the method comprising our invention, will ter as theoriginal tubular article. The substan be formed into inwardly directedflanges on the tially conical portion 6 is then curled and rolled 5-0terminals thereof for the purpose of securing inwardly as most clearlyshown at}? in Fig.7

Within the hub the spindle sustaining assembly after which the portion'7 is flanged inwardly 5.." as well as proper shoulders or annular'projecas at 8 in Fig. 8. Y 11 I 1 tions on such hub for the purpose ofanchoring The next step in the method comprising our I the inner ends ofthe spokes of the wheel. invention consists in shrinking the annularpor- -1 55' Other objects of our invention will appear as tion 9 of thetubularelement adjacent the en- -7 substantially fiat blank maybetubulated. and graduallyto. an intermediate portions: whichxljoo largedportion 4 as most clearly shown in Fig.

9. The shrinking of the portion 9 may be aocomplished simultaneouslywith the. inwardly fianging of the terminal 10 of the tubular artiole.ished hub shell is to flange out the inner periphery of the inwardlydirected flange 8 into an axially extending flange 11 as most clearlyfor the inner ends of the wirespokes, is well known to those familiarwith'theart.

The above explained operations can .be ofected by any suitableapparatus, for example, the blank shown in Fig. 1 can be sheared to thedesired size and shape in a punch press orby means of any other machineadapted to thisend. The hoops shown in Figs. 2 and 3 can be producedon'a rolling machine having three pyramidically arranged rolls, or itmay be formed by' bumping orrounding on a press or bulldozer betweendies. The ring illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5 is preferably produced byelectric welding, the burr or flash incident to the welding beingremoved by shearing or otherwise to produce a smooth finish. After theburr or flash has been removedby shearing it may be necessary to smoothout slight imperfections necessarily, incidental to such shearingby'longitudinally rolling the Welded seam under pressure rolls whichwill force such metal into a smooth seam, although slightly deformingthe circular blank into a flat area asmost clearly 'hoWn in Fig.5. noway detrimental to the subsequent operation included in the methodcomprising our invention, such fiatportion being easily rounded out inthe subsequent operations.

lhe enlargement of the diameter of the tubular article from one terminalto an intermediate portion thereof, as illustrated in Fig. 6, may beaccomplished in a sizing machine and the curling or the substantiallyconical terminal into the form illustrated in Fig. 7 maybe mostadvantageously effected in a press. A press. of

suitable capacity and proper dies may also be 1 employed for ,thepurpose of flattening .the

curled terminal of the structure illustrated in Fig. '7 to the formshown inFig. 8.- A rolling machinehaving suitably arranged rolls may beemployed for the purpose of shrinking the annular portion -9 asillustrated in Fig. 9, such rolls, also having associated therewith,suitable- "olls which will inwardly' flange the terminal 10. After thearticle has. been formed as illustrated in Fig.9, the axial 'flangingorformation of the flange 11 may most advantageously be accomplished ina press which will force the metal into such flange without splitting orotherwise deteriorating the metal comprising such From the abovedescription. of one form of our improved method, it will be apparentthat the enlargement of the diameter of the tube gradually effects theproper distribution of the metal from one terminal to' an intermediateportion:

The next step in the formation of the fin-' This slight area is,however, in'

thereof, which enables such substantially conical terminal to be curledinto a relatively large inwardly directed flange without breaking orrufiling the metal. The thin portion of the tube produced by theenlarging of the diameter thereof occurs at a point having the greatestradius, therefore in no way detracting from the strength of the finishedproduct. The shrinking of the other terminal of the tube provides anincreased thickness of the metal in the areas of short. diametersthereby producing the proper strength which serves as an anchorage forthe inner ends of the spokes ,of the wheel. It will be seen that, byemploying the above outlined method of forming tubular articles ofvarying diameter, a hub shell for wire wheels may be manufactured from asingle element of stock with a minimum number of operations without anysacrifice of strength and rigidity of the finished shell. By employingthis method,

step stated by any of the following claims or the steps be emequivalentof such stated step or ployed.

We therefore particularly point outand distinctly claim as ourinvention:

l. The method of making hubs and the like which comprises providing atube, enlarging the diameter of such tube from/one terminal gradwhichcomprises providing a tube, enlarging the diameter or" such tube fromone terminal gradually to an intermediate portion thereof, contractingthev metal beyond theenlarged portion by inwardly fianging suchterminal, annularly ually to an intermediate portion thereof, con

tracting the metal beyond the enlarged portion by inwardly suchterminal, annularly shrinking a portion of such tube, inwardly hangingthe. other terminal, and axially flanging said first named flange. i

,the use and assembly of separate items is enshrinking a portion of,such tube adjacent said fianging the l. A method of making hubs and thelike,

larged intermediate portion, and shrinking andthickening the remainingfree end. 7

HARRY w. KRANZ. HARRY H. BOUND.

JACOB S FENZEL;

